Monday, July 20, 2009

Merino Singles

Before I begin, thank you everyone for your wonderful comments on my last two posts! :)

I have actually have several posts to write this week, but I'll start off today with my fresh-off-the-wheel singles. ;)

These are spun from 2oz of merino fiber I bought at the fiber festival I went to in May.The colour in the fiber photo is pretty inaccurate, it's really more of a mauve.

I had a big singles disaster just a little while back. I'd spun about 600yds (very rough estimate there!) of singles, intending to Navajo ply (3 ply) them.

The problem? I could only get through about 12" of singles before they just fell apart. Luckily Celeste had come over that day to spin with me and was around to help me figure where I'd gone wrong. A quick inspection of the singles and she announced the verdict: not enough twist.

It was a sad time.

But a few Disney/Pixar short films later, I felt better and moved on. Sortof.At any rate, my focus for this yarn was to put enough twist in. Maybe even more than enough. In fact, I almost wanted to experience that phenomenon that I've heard to be so common with new spinners. Overspinning.So a few days later, I began anew and per Celeste's suggestion, I started counting treadles per length of fiber I drafted and developed a faster rhythm with my treadling.

Also, each time I moved the yarn to a new hook (the hook that helps wind the yarn onto the bobbin evenly) I did a "twist check". Basically it's just letting the yarn "ply itself" until it's balanced and examining the finished product. As I was spinning I really felt like I was finally getting a yarn I'd be pleased with.

And as I was winding onto the niddy-noddy I didn't experience any breaks in the yarn (well, excepting a few snaps where I had obviously drafted too thin) so I was pretty happy about that!Of course, now I have to wind this up into a center pull ball and ply it.Here's hoping it will work out!